Bulgarian Wines
An article from "Wines of the World
CD-ROM"
Why have Bulgarian wines done so much better in the
West than that of other East European countries? One reason is that it got off
to an early start, thanks to specialization within Comecon countries, the East
European Communist counterpart to the European Economic Community, under
Krushchev during the 1950s. During the 1970s Bulgaria successfully exploited the
western predilection for Cabernet Sauvignon (which now accounts for one in four
vines), and since then it has never looked back.
Production has fluctuated during the 1980s. As exports to the
Soviet Union dropped during this period, vines were pulled up, reducing output
by a quarter. Years of drought in the late 1980s reduced it further, from 4.5
million hectoliters/118,881,000 U.S. gallons in 1985 to a mere 1.8 million
hectoliters/ 47,552,400 U.S. gallons in 1990. But the 1990 vintage was "the best
in forty-five years" according to the Bulgarian Vintners Company (B.V.C.). Rain
during 1991 relieved the worst effects of the drought, and production approached
normal levels.
Short harvests in the early 1990s moved Bulgaria from fifteenth
to about twentieth in the volume league table of wine production. It was the
second largest exporter of bottled wine in the world up to
1990.
Recent key developments: Following programmes of land
acquisition and investment, the Bulgarian wine industry witnessed the planting
of new vineyards, the establishment of small ‘boutique’ wineries in the South
and intensified competition on both the domestic and export markets. Producers
and exporters have adopted strong, branded approaches to their export markets
and branded wines are also becoming increasingly popular on the domestic
market.
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